Post by roadsdiverged on May 28, 2018 18:43:30 GMT -5

I used to play that with my dad a lot. There was another game where you were on opposite sides with obstacles in the middle. You had to shoot "up" and over to hit the other guy. Poor description, but thats the best I can do for now.

Post by simnettpratt on May 28, 2018 18:59:21 GMT -5

We had the tank game on the Atari - got it before it was even the 2600, just 'the Atari'.

Artillery came out for our TRS-80s, not long after they could draw lines. It was just a single white line on a black background, with your two little cannon on either side. Was one of the reasons I knew Angry Birds was going to be popular.

Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 8:13:18 GMT -5

Does anybody remember the original “ PONG “ game that came installed on Magnavox TV’s back in the very early 70’s? One BIG issue was if you played the game with the brightness level to high the result would be that you burn a horizontal line “ dead center “ in the Phosphor of the cathode ray tube 📺 screen 📺.

Post by simnettpratt on Jul 16, 2018 18:02:36 GMT -5

Wow. That was actually before my time - I didn't get actual games until 1980 when my school got the four TRS-80s, and we got the Atari (pre the Atari 2600) for the house. In 1973 my only computer was the one my dad got me. It cosy fifty pounds! and could only add, subtract, divide and multiply. The games sucked

Post by unknownpipesmoker on Jul 16, 2018 18:43:39 GMT -5

Two games I wish would have made the move beyond DOS and Windows 3.1 are Jill of the Jungle and Bruce Lee. Xuan aced the whole way through three levels of Jill and I actually made it to the upper levels of Bruce.Any games you all remember?

If it hasn't been mentioned already, get DosBOX. Great compatibility with nearly every game. Most of them are available online on abandonware sites. Just google "dosbox", "abandonware".

Active Member of the Brotherhood of Bearded Pipemen.

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peaceWhere there is hatred, let me sow love"

Post by simnettpratt on Jul 16, 2018 21:48:31 GMT -5

Best DOS game ever: Tom Landry Strategy Football, made here in Dallas with Tom Landry and fits on a floppy. Just reading his description of all the formations will teach you a lot. On any play, you can ask his advice, and I swear I still hear him say new things. The 1993 graphics don't matter, it's the xs and the os. This is why I have DOSBox on my pc.

Only thing is, you can't play as Dallas. It's the 94 season and Dallas is just ridiculous. It's not even fun to BE Dallas.

Post by headrott on Jul 17, 2018 2:50:06 GMT -5

One of my favorite games I remember playing on my grandpa's Commodore PET computer was just called "Adventure". It was only words that you read on the screen, but our young imaginations definitely "painted the picture". I specifically remember the last time my brother and I were playing, we got to a part (that we had been stuck at for a long time). We tried using some of the items we had to make a bridge across a chasm (to get to a cave on the other side). We crossed the bridge and I remember reading "You are entering the cave and there is a blue light emanating in the mist around the bend of the cave."

My parents said we had to leave immediately after reading this. We drove an hour back to our house in Manteca. That was the last time we played the game.

Speaking of the Commodore 64, let's not forget Erebus. That game was f*cking impossible to beat.

Later I remember playing Doom on my big Polk Monitor 10 speakers and it sounded like shotguns going off in the neighborhood.

A little later, when "online gaming" was brand new, using a null modem, my best friend Seth and I would hook our computers together to play Duke Nukem 3D and Rise Of The Triad. That's actually where the ROTT portion of my screen name came from. His screen name was Spithead, and mine was Headrott. It worked.

Post by toshtego on May 21, 2020 13:13:54 GMT -5

Still miss Duke Nuke'm.

I liked Microsoft's Flight Simulator. I got to by good at safely landing a Cessna 170 on an aircraft carrier flight deck. Not so lucky with the DC 10 or whatever four engine commercial jet airliner they had in the game back then.

I had a War Between the States shooter game. That was fun. I got to be pretty effective with the Whitworth Rifle.

Post by simnettpratt on May 21, 2020 13:26:03 GMT -5

I have almost 3,000 hours in FSX (Flight Simulator 10). You have to fix literally everything microsoft made, then it's pretty good. By literally everything, I mean you have to update the aircraft, the AI planes, ATC, the weather engine, the textures, landclass, add photoreal terrain, literally everything. The default install is about 8GB, my install is right at 1,000GB.

To illustrate what I mean, here's two screenshots - half is default microsoft terrain, the other half is aftermarket updated terrain. See if you can tell which is better.

Post by Legend Lover on May 21, 2020 13:32:27 GMT -5

I have almost 3,000 hours in FSX (Flight Simulator 10). You have to fix literally everything microsoft made, then it's pretty good. By literally everything, I mean you have to update the aircraft, the AI planes, ATC, the weather engine, the textures, landclass, add photoreal terrain, literally everything. The default install is about 8GB, my install is right at 1,000GB.

To illustrate what I mean, here's two screenshots - half is default microsoft terrain, the other half is aftermarket updated terrain. See if you can tell which is better.

That's a huge difference. You'd need some heavy machinery for that to run smoothly.

I remember trying to play ultima underworld on my x386 when it was really for x486 and above. I turned off all texture effects. All the walls and floors were solid colours, but the game was brilliant.

Post by simnettpratt on May 21, 2020 13:35:18 GMT -5

Hey, tomorrow's the 40th anniversary of Pac-Man! Here's some Pac-Man trivia for you, a lot of you will already know

It was originally called Puc-Man, but they had to change it for America because they knew kids would scratch off part of the P in Puc to make it a completely different letter.

Pac-Man designer Toru Iwatani had zero training as a programmer or designer. When he started at Namco in 1977, he expected to work on pinball machines.

Pac-Man had some of the first cutscenes in a videogame. One of them saw an enormous Pac-Man chasing a terrified ghost across the screen. Iwatani called these “coffee breaks.”

The development of the game took around 18 months. For that time period that was an exceptionally long time. The reason? Programming the ghosts and their unique movements.

Pac-Man has been played an estimated 10 billion times.

The power-up ball that allows Pac-Man to eat the ghosts is inspired by Popeye becoming strong from eating spinach.

Pac-Man has no ending, but a computer programming integer overflow makes the 256th level impossible to clear. During the 255 levels, if you eat every dot, power pellet, fruit and enemy, you will achieve 3,333,360 points – the highest possible score.